Coming to America…Not the Eddie Murphy Movie, But Filomena and Carmela’s Story.

No doubt, we’re a nation of immigrants. And as such, many of us have heard tales of when either parents, grandparents, or relatives, or even our own have arrived on these shores.

Filomena Bianco, who just celebrated her 100th birthday with a visit to Ellis Island over the weekend, was a 19 year old when she arrived here in 1930 with a husband waiting for her, and a child in tow.

Not very different than my paternal grandmother’s story…having arrived here in 1928 from Nola, Italy with my Aunt Flo, just 19 months old, and my grandfather, for whom I’m named, anxiously waiting.

Filomena told some of her stories to the Ellis Island archivist, stories that I’ll bet her family had heard time and time again. Many of them sounding just like the stories my grandmother would tell me.

Stories about how adapting to the new life wasn’t easy…about how she would have to do piece work at home to try and bring in some extra cash; of my grandfather going into a paisan’s bakery along with his brother in law to bake bread, and how they didn’t even have a fan to cool themselves off in the summer.

Stories like that are rare gems….becoming all the more rarer because the generation that came before us is dying off slowly.

In the 1990 movie “Avalon”, an Eastern European Jewish family settles in Baltimore. The story mirrors the life of writer, director Barry Levinson, and how he, as the main character Michael, came to know his roots through his grandfather, Sam.

The movie ends on a poignant note where, at the very end of the movie, Michael takes his son, also named Sam, to visit with the grandfather. Upon leaving, the little boy is struck with the fact that the elder Sam, “…talks funny!”

Michael’s response was to echo what his grandfather said as the opening line
of the film, “…I came to this country in 1914. It was such a beautiful place…”

Those are the real "Coming To America" stories that inspire me!